For many years in many countries it was believed that the Catholic Church is evil and the devil on earth. They knew about her only that she organized crusades, the Inquisition was born in her and she was monstrously aggressive towards all dissidents and professing other religions, especially Jews and Cathars.
The fact that Protestants in Northern Europe at the fires of the Inquisition or Orthodox neophytes during the baptism of Russia burned no less, but a greater number of both fellow tribesmen and foreigners, they preferred not to know, and all executions were a priori attributed to Catholics. About the fact that the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages had a huge impact on music, fine arts, architecture, created international jurisprudence, the first universities appeared under her, and it was she who in many ways created the European civilization that the whole world is striving for, with the exception of apologists coarseness, originality, bast shoes and burqas - they prefer not to think. The fact that the Catholic Church is generally the first Christian church, and Orthodoxy, for example, was born only a thousand years later, do not think.
The obscurantism of many detractors of Catholicism does not allow them to think about the fact that it is the Catholic Church that is the “compiler” and “editor” of the New Testament, the testament of Christ, which is professed by absolutely all Christian denominations on earth. Prejudice and ignorance, a multitude of outdated clichés, still accompany "knowledge" about the Catholic Church.
Middle Ages
Of course, during its formation, the Catholic Church underwent various vicissitudes, and its changes largely depended on who ruled it in a given historical period. So, the birth of the Inquisition was really promoted by people with a displaced psyche: Pope Lucius III in 1184 and Pope Innocent III in 1198. Yes, because of their "research" and the like, humanity has lost Giordano Bruno, Galileo and many, many other talented, brilliant and simple people. But!
But, firstly, for the sake of fairness, it must be said that not only in Catholic countries and on the Catholic throne, not quite adequate individuals came to power now and then, organizing world-wide massacres and not appreciating human lives: they say, "women give birth to new ones." And not only Catholic obscurantists wrote treatises like the "Hammer of the Witches". Such literary masterpieces are still appearing on book shelves, and their authors are welcomed by the central Russian TV channels.
And, secondly, it is somehow completely forgotten that it was during the Middle Ages that the Catholic Church gave mankind great musicians, artists, scholarly priests. The founder of geology, Fr. Nicholas Steno (Niels Stensen), the founder of Egyptology, Fr. Athanasius Kircher, theorist who measured the acceleration of a freely falling body about. Giambattista Riccioli, the father of modern quantum theory was the Jesuit Rujer Boscovic. By the way, it was the Jesuits who once especially succeeded in the study of earthquakes, but seismology is still, no, no, yes, it will be called "Jesuit science." And how many outstanding mathematicians, astronomers, natural scientists, researchers and lawyers were among the Catholic priests and monks.
Thus, the numerous Benedictine order made a huge contribution to the culture and economy of the Middle Ages: they created libraries, scriptoria, art workshops, and their successes and research in animal husbandry and selection still have a huge impact on agricultural science.
Or, for example, the first author of international law was a 16th century Catholic priest, Professor Francisco de Vitoria. Faced with the Spanish mistreatment of the original inhabitants of the New World, de Vitoria and other Catholic philosophers and theologians began to reflect on human rights and proper relations between countries and peoples. It was these Catholic thinkers who developed the idea of international law in its current understanding. And, since all European monarchies in one way or another were subordinate to the Papal State, they were obliged to take into account the postulates that were modern for the Middle Ages approved by it.
Modernity
The first big changes in the Catholic Church of our time began to take place during the reign of Pope John XXIII, who initiated the convening of the General Council of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). This large-scale meeting was attended by bishops from around the world, as well as observers from the Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant denominations. The council initiated many changes: in the liturgical language (the transition from Latin to the national language), the revision of sacramental rituals, ecumenical openness towards other Christian churches, great concern for political and social issues.
So, since the mid-60s of the last century, Catholics of all countries have the opportunity to pray and conduct rituals in their native, simple - modern language. So, for example, it is customary in non-European countries, but where Catholics of different nationalities live, for example in Uzbekistan, services in the church (the local Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus) are divided in time and are held in English, Russian (not Old Church Slavonic), Polish and Korean.
Of course, the Catholic Church is conservative and will never abandon centuries-old dogmas. However, it also changes due to changes in the historical and political situation in the world. Moreover, the Catholic Church, which has matured and endured a lot over two millennia, has long understood that its strength lies in its weakness. Therefore, her pontiffs find the strength to repent for all past sins.
Pope John Paul II during his reign - from 1978 to 2005 - made more than a hundred apologies: to the Jewish people for the centuries-old anti-Semitism of the Catholic Church; apologies for intolerance and violence against dissidents; repentance for organizing religious wars and crusades; repentance for sins that have violated the unity of Christians; repentance for sins against the rights of peoples - disrespect for other cultures and religions; repentance for sins against human dignity; repentance to the women of the world for the church's complicity in their oppression and many others … On March 12, 2000, Pope John Paul II held a separate solemn Mass Mea Culpa at St. Peter's Church in the Vatican, during which general repentance and "cleansing of memory" took place. Here repentance was brought and prayers were given for forgiveness from God for the injustice that Christians have committed over the past centuries. The current pontiff, Pope Francis, in April 2014 asked forgiveness from the entire world community for the priests who were convicted of sexual harassment of children.
Among the many misconceptions there is one more - that at present the Catholic Church in Europe has lost its position. This, to put it mildly, is not entirely true. Among the vivid examples of this are the huge number of believers who gather weekly for Sunday services, not only on the main church holidays. By the way, the live broadcasts from the celebration of Christmas and Easter, which are broadcast from the steps of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, according to the viewer rating, can only be compared with football matches during the World Cup.
But this is the visible side. There is also invisible, but quite weighty. It is because of the peaceful and unspoken influence of the Catholic Church that people now have the Europe that they know. Europe after the Reigns of Reagan and Thatcher: Europe after the Fall of the Iron Curtain. It is the Catholic Church of the last thirty or forty years that has had a tremendous influence on the worldview of the people of the West, who have abandoned ideas of conquest and the restoration of any empires. She also influenced and influences the ideas of tolerance and religious tolerance: in many ways, and thanks to the Catholic Church, mankind has moved forward in this regard.
